(35)

"Oh, hey, its the firecat! And she brought the whole litter with her!"

The girls came to a stop in the hallway ahead of four men only one of them had seen before, but the figures were so distinct that they all recognized them from descriptions alone: A Prohibition gangster, a cowboy with a six-shooter, an angry-looking, bare-chested yakuza, and an old kung-fu master.

"Oh, thank goodness," Sword Witch muttered. "I was worried he'd try to teleport the whole train in somehow."

"I wish he had." The gangster's tone made the comment sound deceptively jocular. "Then we could leave you to the old boss. I ain't too keen on fighting dames. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth."

Sacred Witch took a step to the front. "You do intend to fight us, then?"

"Would if I could, dollface," he replied with a shrug. "But my compatriots seem to have taken issue with me after our last song and dance." He turned just enough so they could see the chrome of the cowboy's revolver pointed firmly at his back. "Can't imagine why."

"Because yer a yellow-bellied, backstabbing rattler," the cowboy replied with a snarl. "And ya talk too much. You should be thanking the Almighty we didn't just bury ya on sight."

"I'll get right on that, pally," he smoothly returned. "Told you it was just a job." The gangster sighed and patted his coat, then groaned. "You could have at least left me my luckies. Even for us, depriving a man of his smokes is just cruel."

"Maybe I should've," the cowboy bit back. "Give ya somethin' else ta do with those gums of yours asides flapping 'em."

"Wait," Flame Witch put in, "how do you plan to fight the four of us when two of yours are tied up with one pointing their gun at the other?"

The cowboy rolled his eyes with an annoyed sigh and drew a much more modern-looking semi-automatic pistol from the small of his back with his free hand. "I've got his iron, too, smartass."

"Shining Lance!"

The surprise attack from Sword Witch blasted the cowboy away from the gangster, but the constructs weren't sitting on their laurels. Immediately, she had to side step the old Oriental man's jumping ax kick. She tried to grab his follow-up backhand to throw him to the ground, but he was too spry, gut-checking her with his other foot while they were fastened to one another.

The yakuza tried to jump in, only to get intercepted by a flying tackle from Flame Witch, and shadow chains leaped from the ground to bind the old man, courtesy of Reina, just before the brunette took his head clean off with her sword.

To the sounds of Flame Witch pummeling her own opponent in the background, the gangster took his pistol from the body of the cowboy and then patted him down. A moment later, he found his box of cigarettes and his lighter, pulled one out, sat back and lit it up.

He looked up from his first pull and found them gathering back around him. "Wow, but you gals are snappy, aintcha ..." He gave a sardonic chuckle and took another puff, then blew it back out, not toward any of them. "Makes me glad to have an excuse to miss swapping knuckles."

"Does that mean you don't intend to fight us?"

"What's the point?" He shrugged at the redhead's question. "Listen, Firecat, I'm a very By the Books sort. I pay my taxes on time, I keep to a schedule. But not because I'm some hotshot pip."

He took another pull on his cancer stick. "I'm a fundamentally lazy man by nature, see, and the least amount of work is where all the wheels stay greased, savvy? Now, boss man tells me to do something, I'm gonna do my level best, but you don't send a bruno to do a soup job with tinsel. My orders were to fit you dolls for Chicago overcoats, not to get my nines ruined for a biscuit trip."

The gangster gave a shake of his head. "No way I'm taking you hoofers down, so no point in trying. Honestly, I don't know what the big man was thinking with an order like that."

Sword Witch crossed her arms. "I have a feeling he was just being a completionist. He didn't expect you to win, he was just putting together a boss rush and didn't care how fit you were so long as everything got represented."

He let out a sour laugh at that. "All the more reason not to give him the satisfaction. Eh, he gave me G-Man willies, anyway." The gangster turned his attention to Flame Witch once more. "Go on, Firecat, shake a leg. Kitten's waiting. You promised you'd bring her back home, didn't you?"

"... Yeah." She glanced over at Sword Witch at the reminder of that promise. "Yeah, I did."

The girls took a moment to exchange nods in agreement, and then hurried down the hall.

"I don't care," he said to himself once their footfalls faded into the background bedlam of the school. "I can't. And even if I could, I had two rounds in a game everybody else gets one. Nothing to complain about."

The gangster flicked the cigarette away, its embers scattering across the hall floor, and shifted his attention to the gun in his hand.

"All that's left is to make sure the butter and egg man has one less patsy. Sorry, Kitten. Best I can do."

He paused with the gun half-raised, as one might when listening for something, but then he shook his head and gave a thump to his chest where his heart would be.

"Nope, nothing."

* * *

All of the girls stopped when they heard a gunshot echo down the hallway from behind them. For a moment before realization reached them, they thought they were getting shot in the back. A moment later, with a solemn face, Miss Sada urged them forward again.

Only to find themselves face to face with the robed man from the bridge.

"Amazing how revoltingly human they can be at times, isn't it?" he asked.

Flame Witch stomped forward before even Sword Witch could. "Where's Haru?!"

The Arbiter's eyes widened at the demand, then cast them toward Sarasa. "Tut tut, Warden. Someone's been messing with the records."

The history teacher crossed her arms at the accusation. "I only fixed the alteration you made by removing her."

"And absolutely not because it was easier than lengthy, repetitive, tedious explanations to lower life forms without the intellect, concepts or depth to understand? Warden, I find your dedication to higher principles," the last word was delivered with dripping sarcasm after the briefest of pauses, "outstanding."

"About that," Ran spoke up, barely loud enough to be noticed. "Why do you assume we can't understand something as simple as the concept of higher-dimensional physics?"

The Arbiter visibly rolled his eyes. "Because, simple as it may be, yours is an experiential species. You won't truly understand anything you can't interact with, and your senses are restricted to a mere four planes."

He threw his arms wide with exasperation. "It would be like explaining color to a blind man! He can understand it as a concept that exists, he may even understand it scientifically as the refraction of unabsorbed light particles, but the words! Red, yellow, blue, green! They will forever mean nothing to him!"

"We get it, we're blind old men." Sword Witch stepped forward to get his attention. "What do you want, Arbiter? What hoops are you going to make us jump through to get Haru back?"

Perhaps Haru could have seen deeper into his heart if she had been here, but when he turned his attention to her, all the brunette could see in his gaze was irritation and contempt. Even his expressions on the bridge had been exasperation with sinners. He held no personal affront toward them beyond that he was being forced to interact with them at all.

Because they were all so very far beneath him.

"Yes, let's get to the point," he agreed. "At the risk of sounding cliche, there are two ways to get her back, the easy w--"

"Hard."

"Hard."

"Hard."

Behind the brunette, the other three witches near-simultaneously gave their response, even the normally hesitant Shield Witch, the flash of steel in her eyes.

There was irritation at being interrupted, but it only rested on the Arbiter's face for a moment. "You don't want to at least hear the options?"

"We already know the easy option," Sacred Witch replied coldly. "We abandon Sword Witch and Nariko accepts a reset."

"Yeah," Flame Witch agreed with heat to her words that the imperial edict from Reina hadn't possessed. "If you think you can turn us against each other like that, your god complex isn't the only delusion you've got!"

Ran nodded, too, fists clenched before her in determination. "When we thought she might vanish at any moment, I swore that if I ever found the means to protect this Nariko from that, I'd do it! I can't abandon a friend to oblivion! I'll shield her from it with everything that I am!"

Sword Witch wanted to give answer to their feelings, but when she turned to look back at them, she couldn't speak around the lump in her throat. She could only think that she owed them so many milkshakes, as stupid a sentiment as that sounded within her head.

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Miss Sada beamed pride despite still being in her feline form, and like always, her voice was unaltered by it. "Well, you have their answer, Arbiter. I would, of course, like to review your hard option before approving it."

He was impassive at the girls' emotional declarations, but growled in annoyance like paperwork was just demanded of him at Sarasa's words. "You believe me overreaching?"

"You have made yourself their antagonist," she pointed out. "It is your prerogative to set challenges for them, but not to wave your powers over them as a fifth-dimensional being. You must realize you are already pushing the boundary there."

"Tsk." His head jerked to the side in frustration. "Fine. I have no intention of fighting them, myself. Here, I think you'll find it within the boundaries of capability."

Nothing passed between them, however, and he made no motion to hand anything over. And yet Sarasa's cat eyes narrowed. "... Really?"

"You said it, yourself. It is within my role to test them. Let them prove their resolve, then."

Her eyes stayed pinned on him for a few moments longer, but then she sighed and flashed back to her human form behind the girls.

They at once turned to her. "Miss Sada?" Natsumi asked.

"I'm sorry," she replied, head down, "but by playing that particular card, I've tied my own hands."

She put a warm smile on her face, though. "But they are only tied because I believe in you. You can overcome this trial, and then his own hands will be bound for quite some time. Defeat him in his own game here, and he will not be able to act so boldly again."

Miss Sada watched with sad pride as each girl steeled herself in turn, then gave one last word of advice. "Just remember, when you see the light, run."

"No more, Warden, I insist."

She held her hands up at the Arbiter's words. "I intended no more." Then one more smile for the girls. "I'll be waiting for you on the other side."

The moment she vanished, the entire school began to rumble.

"Now that that's been resolved," the Arbiter spoke calmly as the ground behind the girls began to fall away into a white, luminous abyss, "I suggest you take her advice."

* * *

The Witches' feet pounded underneath them, the constant rumble of the abyss only overshadowed by the incessant humming the Arbiter seemed to add just to freak them out. The volume of the abyss was constant, but the Arbiter's humming always told them just how close behind he was.

The void stayed wherever the Arbiter passed, meaning it was growing larger with every step he took. They'd found that out the hard way when they tried to circle around him. Flame Witch and Sword Witch were able to blow open an escape passage into another hallway, but it had been too close a thing.

"Is he just up and deleting reality, itself?!" the redhead complained as they ran. "Can he just do that?!"

"Like a line from paper, probably," the brunette confirmed, "but that's not what he's doing."

"Oh, please tell me it's a spell and you just copied it! I'll never complain about you being a spell thief again!"

But she shook her head. "We're not in reality, remember? We're in a pocket world. He's just changing that. Like overwriting a hard drive with ones and zeroes until all of the data on it is nullified."

Natsumi scowled over at her. "Most people just say erase, Kelly."

"It's not ... erasure ..." Ran pumped beside them. "Destructive ... data nuking ... More thorough ..."

"You okay, Ran," the brunette called over.

The gunmetal girl nodded. "Just ... regretting ... not taking gym ..."

"We can't keep running like this," Sacred Witch put in, her raven hair trailing behind her. "Sooner or later, we'll run out of space. We need a destination and we need to stop his advance."

"Destination, destination ..." The brunette racked her brain. "Somewhere important. Where would we go if we were in trouble?"

"The nurse's office?" Shield Witch ventured.

"The teacher's lounge," Sacred Witch stated.

Then Flame Witch got it. "The club room!"

At once, everyone nodded and adjusted course with new gusto.

"We still need to slow him down," Reina reminded the group. "How do we slow down oblivion?"

"We make someone owe us a favor," Sword Witch answered and pulled her phone out, praying it had reception.

* * *

The prince's room at the imperial palace was, he thought, fairly normal. "Room" was doing a lot of heavy lifting, true, but it's not like anybody actually counts their bathroom as part of their bedroom. Or their closet. Or the adjoining seating area. And everybody keeps snacks around, right?

Okay, so it was larger than normal. He was a prince, after all. The bathroom had a hot tub the size of a small pool, the closet was a walk-in that, were everything stripped out, he could have fit his princely bed in, and the seating area was the size of a living room, even before considering its adjoining kitchenette.

All told, there were houses smaller than his bedchambers, but that wasn't what he meant when he thought of it as normal.

It was still a bedroom. His bedroom. A private place, sacrosanct from all of the politics and spies of the imperial court.

Oh, certainly, if he ever brought a female here, it would be news across the empire within the hour, there could be no doubt of that. But things? The gossipmongers didn't care about things.

His mother knew about the shrine. It wasn't really for spiritual worship, but it could hardly be described as anything else. Every teenager decorated their walls with those things they liked most. Bands, movies, video games, sports teams. His focus just happened to be ... narrower.

Really, the Witches were startlingly popular among younger demons. Oh, they all knew the girls were enemies, but he didn't even start the fan club ... even if his undercover activities allowed him a better collection.

That's what the shrine was, after all. Photographs and mementos of the Witches. A pencil Shield Witch had once given Jack, the empty box that had once held obligation chocolates from Thunder Witch, again given to Jack, snapshots of Flame Witch spooked by a haunted house.

Yes, his mother knew, and like most parents, she grudgingly tolerated it. When the enemy is young, attractive and powerful, it is only natural for young demons to be attracted to such traits. Besides, one day, such mementos may be the only records of their hated enemies to remain.

He was arranging the latest photos, pictures from Thunder Witch's airsoft club, when his phone rang. Eirwen gave a chuckle when he saw the name. "Well, speak of the Witch."

He would have loved to actually have it say Thunder Witch, but this was supposed to be Jack's phone, and that would have been far too suspicious. Instead, it just displayed a professional, "Nariko Kelly." Outings like the haunted house had proven excellent opportunities to get the girls' numbers.

For her to call unprovoked on a Saturday filled him with all sorts of ideas. Was she looking for someone to hang out with?

He swiped to pick up and held the human device up to his long, sharp ear, but answered easily with the voice of the human boy Jack. "Kelly? What a surprise! To what do I--"

"Cut the bull, Wren!" she immediately interrupted him, and he could hear the heavy breathing and footfalls of running. "We don't have time for it!"

So it was official. She really did know. He'd been suspecting, what with her constant slip-ups, but it was impossible, so slip-ups were all they could have been. He thought about denying it, but if she really didn't have time ...

He dropped it and went back to his normal voice. "Then you've reached the Crown Prince of the Demon Empire, Sword Witch. That's audacity."

"That's an emergency," she corrected. "You were the only person I could think of to call!"

That made his heart simultaneously sing and stab itself. He didn't let it reach his voice, though, and rolled back onto his bed as he answered. "I can't help you against demons. I know you're amnesic, but I'd hope something like that would be obvious."

"It's not a demon attack," she corrected him. "It's the Arbiter!"

He sat up straight. "The Arbiter? As in the myth?"

"He's real," she insisted. "Like some sort of evil Sarasa. And he took one of us, erased her from memory, and he's holding her for ransom!"

An erased Witch?! A whole fifth Witch?! And he was being denied recollection of such a divine revelation?! "Where are you?"

"We're at the school. We're trying to get to Haru, but he's pursuing us with an oblivion void!"

"I'm on my way."

"Be careful! It can't be coincidence--"

But he'd already hung up and vanished from his room.

* * *

Sword Witch glared down at her phone. "Damn it, you impatient brat! It can't be coincidence that I was able to call you from inside of a seal!"

"Forget it," Sacred Witch ordered. "We'll cut through the rec field!"

The brunet nodded and the group followed their leader for the double doors heading to the connecting hallway.

But the moment they burst through, they skidded to a stop. The back half of the connecting hallway was nothing but white light, and the Arbiter stood calmly at the precipice.

"Shortcuts?" he asked. "No, I don't think so."

"ICE COFFIN!"

Eirwen's shout overrode the dull roar of collapsing existence into the abyss as everything ahead of the Witches, and a good way into the abyss itself, instantly froze over. The ice that stretched into the luminescent oblivion was quick to break down, collapse and dissipate into nothingness, but everything else stopped.

Including the Arbiter.

The demon prince landed on the edge of the frostline a moment later, then tossed his bangs out of his face. "Well, now, that wasn't so bad. A guy might think you just wanted to see him!"

"We have a ... lack of crowd control in our roster, it would seem," Sacred Witch admitted as if it were a personal failure.

Flame Witch didn't have the same hesitancy. "Did you just kill a fifth-dimensional being?!"

"Ah, no," the boy admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "He's still alive. Stuck as an ice statue for all eternity, but ... was I supposed to kill him?"

Sword Witch pointed toward the Arbiter. "Eternity is cracking."

Wren wheeled on the sight with disbelief, but the moment he confirmed it, he threw a hand back and blasted the girls back down the hall.

"Go!" he shouted. "I'll keep him stuck here as long as I can." But as he spoke, he was creating an ice wall between them and him. "I want to meet that fifth Witch!"

As it sealed off completely, the girls were left in silence, no humming, no rumble.

Sword Witch got her feet under her first and started jogging down the hallway. The other girls were quick to follow, but not all for the same reason.

"Wait," Ran tried. "What about Wren?!"

"You heard him," the brunette replied. "It's too late, he's chosen how he's going out. If we save Haru, then all of this can be undone. If we go down because we dawdled when we couldn't do anything, then ... well ..."

She couldn't say it would waste it all, since everything would still be reset. Fortunately, Reina was able to finish the thought.

"If we go down, then nothing anyone has done will matter. It will have never happened, anyway. Mr. Sato. Hisoka. The train. It all goes back to the way it always happens."

Sword Witch nodded, causing a hardened look to cross the others' faces, and they ran on.

* * *

"FROZEN COCYTUS!!!"

As Eirwen summoned his most powerful spell, arctic energies swirled around him, danced to his bidding. He willed them to saturate every inch of space. Every cell, every molecule, every subatomic particle.

He opened his eyes as he threw his hands toward the enemy he sought to destroy. "Take my enemies under and remove them from existence! ERASE!!!"

The energies spiraled out, ripping apart the bonds of existence at absolute zero. The Arbiter's face literally disintegrated into diamond dust and his body blew back into its own oblivion field.

Wren let out a sigh of relief, giving a swipe of his sweatless brow. "Whoo. You really had me worried, there, old man! To start breaking out of my Ice Coffin! Who does that? Guess that fifth dimensional talk wasn't just talk, eh?"

He adjusted his coat confidently. "Made me waste that great final line, too. I can't drop one like that twice, you know!"

The boy turned toward the ice wall and motioned for it to fall away ... but it stayed. He tried again, but he suddenly couldn't feel the magic at all. His own mana refused to respond to him!

"What ... what's going on?!"

"Breaking out of your Ice Coffin was not the feat of a fifth-dimensional being." The Arbiter's mouth reformed, speaking even before the rest of him had done so, though the rest wasn't far behind. "It was a simple flex of strength. Severing you from magic with a gesture of will? That, boy, is power your reality cannot comprehend."

"Ice Coffin!" Without another option, Wren tried again. "Damn it, Ice Coffin!"

Arbiter stepped toward the powerless boy. "You want so badly to see another Witch that you would turn on your god?"

Giving up on magic, Eirwen tried to brace himself for fisticuffs, though a direct fight was never his forte. "You're no god of mine, Arbiter. I don't know what you are, but you're no god."

The Arbiter raised one hand toward Eirwen's face, letting it hover over it. "I am as close to it as you will ever live to see. Pray, boy, and I might hear you. But you've already chosen your fate."

And the Demon Prince screamed as his own body disintegrated a piece at a time.

Once the Arbiter was again alone in the makeshift ice box, he motioned to the wall. It fell away just as its previous master had desired, and the humming and rumble began again.